And Now for Something Completely Different
We all know how it goes. You travel to a certain country and visit a certain town. It's beautiful. You are having a good time. The architecture is phenomenal, the streets are brimming with life. Everyone is smiling and enjoying life. There are a lot of parks and bridges, old buildings, and you can feel the local folklore on every corner. You purchase a day ticket and drive around, you eat at local restaurants, you pose for a photo beside every monument, no matter how insignificant it may look. Then you hit the clubs. You decide to have fun for a couple of days or so. Then, on your last day, you decide it might be a good idea to visit a museum or two. And so you do, you visit them. Soon you realize that you have seen this somewhere before. Sure, the colour of their traditional clothing is a bit different, and their medieval swords have a slightly different curve, but you could swear that you saw a renaissance painting just like this somewhere in Budapest. Or was it Prague? Maybe Vienna?
Don’t get me wrong, I profoundly respect the culture and always make sure to visit as many museums as I can when travelling abroad. After all, museums are fascinating reminders of our past, both good and bad. The things you see in museums, they all shaped in some way who we are today. Yes, even that ancient copper pendant shaped who we are today. But, there is always that “but”. But let’s face it – the slightly different musket you saw in 10 museums you visited prior to this one just doesn’t look so interesting anymore.
In the attempt to solve that problem, several enthusiasts decided to do something entirely different, thus giving Zagreb two new, unusual museums – Museum of Torture and Museum of Illusions. They became a hit in a matter of days, so let’s see what this fuss is all about.
Museum of Illusions
Museum of Illusions opened some two months ago and was an immediate success. The founders, Tomislav Pamuković and Roko Živković, were thinking about what they can do to enrich the museum scene in Zagreb and decided they should offer something new, something fresh and different, and so, the idea to create a museum dedicated to optical illusions was born.
Image Credit: Muzej Iluzija
The museum has two floors containing numerous optical illusions, didactic puzzles, mirror rooms and other interactive exhibits that were collected from all around the world. It is a full experience, as visitors must interact with their environment to experience the illusions to the fullest. Besides the standard "fun factor" that comes with visiting such a museum, Museum of Illusions will teach its visitors a lot about sight, perception and how the human brain works. It's a unique experience as normally you don't visit museums to see your brain playing tricks on you, but that's the part of the charm and the main reason why the museum has become a hit overnight. Oh, and did I mention that the museum is very child-friendly? Boasting a whole range of didactic games and puzzles aimed at children, Museum of Illusions offers you a possibility to organize kids birthday parties offering them a truly special birthday celebration. You usually give your brain some rest during holidays, but why not make it sweat a little, just to keep it in shape? Visit the Museum of Illusions, it's worth it.
Image Credit: Muzej Iluzija
Museum of Illusions, as I mentioned, is very child-friendly, but for this one you might want to leave them outside because it's time to visit:
Tortureum - Museum of Torture
Well, that sounds a bit disturbing, doesn't it, but there is more to it than meets the eye. According to Tortureum, it isn't just a museum that exhibits torture devices from the old days, but it's a wholesome experience with a mission to pinpoint how our everyday existence is subject to various forms of torture, external and internal. We all suffer from some kind of torture and, whether it comes from our homes or our jobs, it's here, and it's up to Tortureum to show how it manifests itself.
Image Credit: Tortureum Facebook page
Tortureum serves as a reminder of our grim past and possible future. Some of its 70 exhibits, among others, are accurate replicas of the guillotine, Judas cradle, Spanish boot, and pendulum. The museum, just like Museum of Illusions, is completely interactive and presents the visitors with a wide range of audio-visual stimuli and video materials. One of the most interesting things you can learn about while visiting Tortureum is the life and death of Matija Gubec, who was the leader of the peasant revolt and got publicly executed in 1573. It is a disturbing experience, but one that ultimately pays off as the visitors leave the museum full of hope, knowing that humankind must do everything to make sure that tortures such as these never happen again. Tortureum is just one of the way people can deal with and prevent violence and, without a doubt, it succeeds in that attempt.
Image Credit: Tortureum
Header image credit: Muzej Iluzija
Author: Marko Pačar